Most of conventional refrigerating machines of a room temperature range, including a refrigerator, a freezer, and an air conditioner utilize phase changes of a gas refrigerant such as chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gas and alternative CFC. In recent years, depletion of ozone layer originating from emission of the chlorofluorocarbon gas has come to be a major issue. In addition, there is a growing concern about the impact of emission of the alternative CFC to the global warming. Accordingly, development of an innovative refrigerating machine, both clean to the environment and having high heat transport capacity, has been increasingly demanded as substitute for the refrigerating machine that employs the gas refrigerant such as the chlorofluorocarbon gas or alternative CFC.
As an outcome of the foregoing situation, a magnetic refrigeration technique is recently focused on. Some of magnetic bodies exhibit so-called a magneto-caloric effect, which makes the magnetic body to change its temperature according to a change in magnitude of the magnitude of the magnetic field applied to that magnetic body. The magnetic refrigeration technique is a technique to transport heat by means of the magnetic body that exhibits the magneto-caloric effect.
The refrigerating machines based on the magnetic refrigeration technique thus far developed include a magnetic refrigerating machine that transports heat utilizing thermal conduction of a solid substance, as disclosed in Publication of Japanese Patent Application 2007-147209. The magnetic refrigerating machine is configured to conduct heat as follows.
A plurality of positive magnetic bodies that increase their temperature when magnetism is applied thereto and a plurality of negative magnetic bodies that decrease their temperature are alternately aligned in one direction at predetermined intervals. A positive and negative pair of magnetic bodies constitutes a magnetic body block. A plurality of the magnetic body blocks aligned in one direction is arranged in an annular shape, to form a magnetic body unit. A permanent magnet is placed on a hub-shaped rotating body, concentric with the magnetic body unit and having generally the same inner diameter and outer diameter as the magnetic body unit, so as to form a magnet unit. A thermal conduction member to be inserted and removed in and from between the positive and negative magnetic bodies is slidably disposed therebetween.
The magnet unit including the permanent magnet is located so as to oppose the magnetic body unit and made to relatively rotate with respect to the magnetic body unit. The thermal conduction member to be inserted and removed in and from between the positive and negative magnetic bodies is made to relatively rotate with respect to the magnetic body unit. With the rotation of the magnet unit, magnetism is applied and removed to and from the positive and negative magnetic bodies at the same time. In addition, the thermal conduction member is inserted and removed in and from between the positive and negative magnetic bodies aligned in the rotating direction. With the rotation of the permanent magnet and the thermal conduction member, the heat generated by the magnetic bodies owing to the magneto-caloric effect is transported via the thermal conduction member in the one direction in which the magnetic bodies are arranged.
However, although Publication of Japanese Patent Application 2007-147209 discloses the magnetic refrigerating machine that transports the heat in one direction by utilizing the thermal conduction of a solid substance, there is no reference of a specific configuration for taking out the transported heat. The magnetic refrigerating machine has to have a configuration for efficiently taking out the transported heat. Unless the transported heat is efficiently taken out of the magnetic refrigerating machine the heat remains therein, and the thermal efficiency expected from the magnetic refrigerating machine is significantly degraded.
To take out the heat, normally a refrigerant path for hot wind and another refrigerant path for cool wind are respectively provided along an inner circumferential portion and an outer circumferential portion of the magnetic refrigerating machine, and air is made to flow through the refrigerant paths so as to obtain hot wind and cool wind. With such a method, however, simply providing the refrigerant paths is insufficient for efficiently generating cool wind and hot wind according to required cooling and heating performance.